Travel Woes and Dirty Airports - Heading to London

Here is what NOT to do. Do NOT wait to the last minute to buy bus tickets to the airport. That will screw you over and end up costing a bunch more. That is what happened to me. I kept putting it off, forgetting, just not doing what needed to be done and then I ended up having to take a bus to the Madrid bus station and then a taxi from there to the airport. The taxi cost me about 36 euros. It's not even that far, it's just that there is a 2.25 base fare when you get in any cab on a Saturday. That's fine. Then there is a 3 euro fare if you take a cab from the bus station and then another 5.50 euro fare if  you go to or from the airport. That's already 10.65 before I even left the parking lot. But it was a lot easier than going with my suitcase for 40 minutes on the Madrid metro to go to a train station, to then wait another 15-20 min to get an airport shuttle bus which was another 40 minutes ride. So I took the taxi. BUT NEVER AGAIN. 

Christmas tree in Barajas Airport

Madrid Barajas is not my favourite airport (mehh experiences when my mom and I first  got here) and it went down in my books again today.  When I walked into the departures area the place was disgusting. Like absolutely gross. There was paper everywhere, garbage overflowing, things strewn about. I literally stood in the entrance for a minute or two taking it all in. I could not believe that an international airport would look like this. It honestly looked like a recycle bin or something had exploded but stuff was everywhere that it couldn't have been that. When I went to check my luggage there was paper there too, outside the stores, outside the security lines, everywhere. Even in the washroom which was really gross on its own. If you can't tell, I was disgusted. But once I went through security, it was as clean and nice as an airport should be. I don't know what happened out there but yuck.

At first I thought I  got there too early but it seems like it was good enough timing. My dad always says go 3 hours before your flight for an international flight, but he's just crazy punctual. I had to eat and I did do some shopping  (I bought another bottle of Cava for my family - I hope they like the stuff) so time went by pretty well. Plus it I actually a really big airport I had to take a train to get to my gate but as I type this I am sitting in some random gate. The screen is telling my gate is SR but that seem to be non-existent so I'm just chilling for now until 30 minutes before boarding, typing this up.

I'm excited and thoroughly terrified all at the same time for this trip. Meeting new people is one thing. They don't necessarily have too much expectations of you. But this is family. I've heard things about them and they’ve heard things about me. Plus I don't even know how many there are, most of their names or  what they even look like, let alone who is picking me up. I feel like I'm going in blind. But if I have learned anything from my three months in  Salamanca so far, it is that people aren't as scary as you might expect.

Also, I'm moving again! On Thursday, Vi and I signed a contract for an APARTMENT!!!!!! It seems I can't sit still. Ever. Em is living with us a well except she won't be there till almost February. YAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!! We are REALLLY excited. It's only about 5 minutes up the street from where our residence currently is but that's  great as it cuts 5 minutes from our walk to school and we still know the area. When we move I'll introduce you all to the new place. For now, I'm just going to go back slightly freaking out over going to London while eating a turkey, onion and goat cheese sandwich.

Happy Winter Break!!

 ♥

(This was written while waiting to board the plane - I'm in London now - 12 Days of DIY will continue when I get back)